


One Easy-To-Destroy Circle

by josephina_x



Series: Gravity Transcends [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: (...or is it? -evil grin-), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Ending, Gen, Weirdmageddon, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 02:05:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13377840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: When the humans try to fight back and storm the Fearamid, Bill Cipher does not cage the Mystery Twins Classic together, or leave the Mystery Twins out-and-about and free to interfere. He’s not stupid. He’s certainly notthatstupid.No, Bill has Sixer all figured out now, evenwiththe metal plate in the way. He knowsexactlyhow to get what he wants.





	One Easy-To-Destroy Circle

**Author's Note:**

> Fic: One Easy-To-Destroy Circle  
> Fandom: Gravity Falls  
> Pairing: n/a  
> Rating: PG-13  
> Spoilers: through the end of the series, and some of the books (Journal #3)  
> Summary: When the humans try to fight back and storm the Fearamid, Bill Cipher does not cage the Mystery Twins Classic together, or leave the Mystery Twins out-and-about and free to interfere. He’s not stupid. He’s certainly not _that_ stupid.
> 
> No, Bill has Sixer all figured out now, even _with_ the metal plate in the way. He knows _exactly_ how to get what he wants.  
>  Disclaimer: Not mine, not for profit.  
> AN: Transcript used for the initial episode dialogue is here: <http://gravityfalls.wikia.com/wiki/Weirdmageddon_3:_Take_Back_The_Falls/Transcript>

\---

Bill has just floated in on them. He’s looking down on them, and the circle, and... he _laughs_. “This is just too perfect! Didn't you brainiacs know the zodiac doesn't work if you don't all hold hands?” he gloats, and Ford gets a very bad feeling. ”And what's better, you've brought every threat to my power together in one easy-to-destroy CIRCLE!” he yells out, and a wave blue energy explodes out of him and sets the circle on fire.

Ford hears Dipper cry out, “Oh no!” while two of the other children are panicking for a slightly different reason, as they put out the flames that have caught in their hair.

Unfortunately, Ford knows that far worse is coming, even before Bill grabs him up again, even as Stanley cries out his name in panic, and Bill is all but smirking with his eye when he taunts him with…

"You wanna see what happens to your friends when you can't get along, Sixer?”

Fidds and the Gleeful boy yell up at Bill angrily, as if their displeasure could ever phase the insane triangle in the least, and when the ‘cool in the face of danger’ girl Wendy -- and _Fiddleford_ , no less -- grab for weapons to threaten Bill with, Ford gets a horrible, horrible feeling.

Ford tries to catch a breath, tries to yell at them to run, but Bill has him wrapped up too tight.

They never should have come here. They never should have tried to rescue him.

“We’re not scared of you!” Wendy yells up at Bill.

Ford doesn’t even have a chance to warn them, before Bill looks down on them and says, “Oh, but you should be.”

He can only struggle frantically and look on in horror as Bill snaps his fingers and every other member of the Zodiac floats upwards into the air. Including his family.

‘ _No_ ,’ he thinks desperately. ‘ _No!_ ’

But he has a two-inch metal plate in his head that Bill can’t hear his thoughts behind. There is nothing that he can think right now that could possibly deter the dream demon in the least.

Contemplatively, Bill says, “You know, this castle could really use some _de **corATIONS!**_ ” and that’s all it takes. Reality warps at Bill’s whim, and every last member of the Zodiac disappears in front of him.

Somehow, despite the crushing hold Bill has on him, Ford finds the breath to scream.

They’re _gone_. They’re all just **gone**. _**They’re--**_

But then, behind Bill, several tapestries come into being and unfurl down the wall.

And on every last one of those tapestries is...

“Looks like it's too late for your friends, Stanford,” Bill tells him dispassionately, as if he had nothing to do with it.

Bill lets go of him, and Ford falls to the floor of the Fearamid, to his knees. He barely registers that Bill had floated down lower, closer to the stone surface before doing so.

“No,” Ford gasps out, staring up at Mabel, at Dipper. At Stanley.

This isn’t like turning the townspeople into stone; it isn’t like turning him into a statue. This isn’t something reversible, easily or otherwise; this is something else entirely. ...They’re not _human_ anymore -- not even _close_.

They’re _gone_. His family is _gone_.

They’re all nothing more than flat pictures on a handful of tapestries, caught in a moment, frozen in time, with their Zodiac symbols as a backdrop. _Screaming._

“But, you know…” Bill draws out, and Ford can barely hear him over the buzzing in his ears; his shoulders are sagging, any fight he’d had in him before has completely left him, as he cranes his head back and stares up at the cloth tapestries that _used_ to be… and when some of them start smoking at the edges, Fiddleford and Wendy and the others, Ford begins to shake.

Stanley’s tapestry is starting to smoke, too.

When flames starts to slowly eat away at every tapestry but those of the niblings, Ford feels tears start to drip down the sides of his face at a remove. The horror of the situation is making him numb, figuratively turning him to stone again where he kneels on the floor of the Fearamid.

Bill telling him, "You can still save your family," is what finally cuts through the buzz in his ears. But it does absolutely _nothing_ for his mind.

“I--” He has to say something. “I--” He doesn’t know what it is. “I--” He doesn’t know what he can say that will fix this. _Nothing will fix this._ “I-I--” He’s transfixed by his family. Staring up at them. All he can think is that they’re _screaming._

And Stanley Pines -- _Lee_ \-- is starting to burn.

Ford can’t think.

“Last chance,” Bill tells him, floating into his field of view, partially blocking what he can see of what’s left of his brother. “Tell me how to take Weirdmageddon global and I'll spare the kids!”

He can’t think. He can’t _think_.

He stares blankly upwards because his brother is _burning_ and the kids are next and his brain isn't working and he doesn’t know what to say to make this _stop_.

“...Fine,” he hears Bill say, and Bill floats out of his vision again. But Ford can’t see anything _fine_ about this situation. He doesn’t _understand_ what Bill meant until he sees tendrils of smoke start to curl away from the sides of the two remaining tapestries that _aren’t_ yet slowly going up in flames from the outside-in.

And suddenly it all becomes clear. He knows what he has to do.

He whips his head around, looking for Bill. He launches himself at the triangle.

He surges upwards and grabs Bill by the arms, and he sees Bill’s eye go wide.

Ford screams, “STOP! I SURRENDER!”

Bill’s eye is still wide and staring. “...What?” the demonic triangle says, floating backwards a bit, away from Ford.

Ford doesn’t have the strength left to hold on. He falls to his knees instead. “I surrender! Please STOP!” he begs. “ _Please_ ,” he begs again, raising his hands like a supplicant in desperate prayer, palms cupped upwards and fingers trembling.

When Bill waves a hand and Ford turns to see the smoke stop spiralling away from the tapestries of the kids, _still intact_ , Ford breaks down sobbing, folding in on himself, holding his head in his hands.

He sobs out a name.

“What?” Bill says.

“ _Stanley_ ,” Ford moans out, unable to look up at the tapestry that’s still aflame. That’s more than halfway gone now.

All he hears for a few seconds is the soft crackle of fire.

And then there’s an odd sort of whooshing sound.

Ford slowly lowers his hands from his face and raises his head, everything feeling oh so heavy. He looks up at Bill, who’s staring down at him with an odd, inscrutable expression in his eye. Watching him.

Bill is holding his hand out towards the tapestries.

Ford stares at Bill for a moment, then his eyes widen and he whips his head back around to see--

Stanley’s tapestry is burning _in reverse_.

Smoke is pouring back down from the rafters and the flames are eating their way _outwards_ , disgorging tapestry as they go.

In seconds, the tapestry that used to be Stanley Pines is waving slightly in the smoky air of the Fearamid’s rafters, whole again.

Ford is staring. He feels tears dripping down the sides of his face anew.

“I want that equation, Sixer,” he hears Bill say. He sees Bill float into his peripheral vision, arms crossed behind him. “And I think I may have something you want, too. **DON’T I.** ”

Ford can barely breathe at this point. He’s staring up at his family, and Bill is offering him a chance to…

“Stanley and the kids,” Ford hears himself say faintly, at a distance. “All of them.” He feels like he’s floating inside his own body, perfectly numb. Because nothing matters anymore.

Nothing but Stanley and the kids. He needs all of them to be okay. Dipper and Mabel and his brother. He didn’t know it before, but he knows it now. He… he can’t _function_ without...

This is the only thing that he can do. This is all he can ask. Ask, and hope. And _pray_ that Bill keeps up his end of the deal.

He can’t stop Bill. Bill could torture them for centuries, and Ford couldn’t stop him. He has no guarantee that Bill will even release them at all.

Even the _threat_ of that would likely be enough to break him completely at this point, if he hasn’t already. ...And does Bill know that? Is Ford asking for too much?

Should he have given up on his brother and only asked for the kids to be saved? If the kids die _now_...

Bill doesn’t speak for what feels like eons.

Ford’s head feels like it’s about to explode. He wants to throw up.

He’s about to try begging again when Bill says...

“...Fine.” And Bill lets out a short _laugh_. “Heck, I’ll even throw in the adult as a freebie, since I’m such a nice guy!” he adds, and he waves a hand.

And Ford feels nothing but confused, as he looks up at the dream demon, because how is ‘throwing in Stanley’ a freebie? Hadn’t he specifically asked for him when…?

When he turns away from Bill to see the rest of the tapestries begin to reform the same way that Stanley’s had, all of the other children _and Fiddleford included_ , he finally realizes what Bill had _thought_ he’d meant when he’d said ‘the kids’. When he’d said ‘all of them’.

...He’s never been more grateful for the metal plate in his head in his _life_.

He’s no hero.

“All of them saved,” he hears Bill say, “For access to your mind, and the equation in your head.”

“Yes,” Ford says, the only hesitation in his answer being the amount of time it takes him to realize that what Bill wants from him is a ‘yes’ in response, rather than a ‘no’.

“ _Good_ ,” he hears Bill say, as Bill floats closer.

He snaps his fingers and Ford has a moment of panic as the tapestries roll upwards. Because _he should have known better_ , it had been a _ruse_ , just another one of Bill’s _mind games_ , and now Bill is going to--

But then he sees each of those pieces of cloth spiral up and inward and fold itself into the shape of human bodies, that then _are_ human bodies that fall the distance to the floor, and Ford feels his breath catch.

It’s a long fall. He’s not sure his heart beats once in the time it takes gravity to finish reasserting itself on the rest of the Zodiac members.

...But all he hears are groans and annoyed mutters from every last one of them as they slowly roll themselves over and begin to push themselves upright from the cold stone floor, and all is right with the world again.

One last kindness from Bill. That sort of fall should kill a human.

...Just like the airless void of the Nightmare Realm should have suffocated him, after he’d been sucked into the portal thirty years ago. Little things. Small mercies. But oh so very important ones.

It’s always been about the little details with Bill. He’d never really appreciated that before.

Ford looks back up at Bill, who is floating in the air next to him. Watching him.

...Has there ever been a time when Bill has ever _not_ been watching him? The question had never occurred to Ford before. But now it occurs to Ford, finally, what it might mean that Bill had been planning all this for one trillion years, this escape to his dimension -- would Bill have ever left _anything_ to chance?

The barrier hasn’t stopped Bill, merely _delayed_ him. And Ford has the information he needs to escape, right here, within Bill’s reach.

How could he have been so foolish to think that he would _ever_ stand a chance at… at _stopping_ Bill. Let alone _destroying_ him?

How could he ever have thought that his mind might be a safe space for an equation that Bill wanted? That he could keep it all in, underneath a simple metal plate? That he could ever find a way to say no, I won’t tell you, once and then again and again and again and over again _forever_ , every time Bill asked -- and then _demanded_ \-- it of him?

There had been nothing else left to do but surrender, Ford just hadn’t seen it until now. Bill is here, and Bill is all-powerful. _Bill had already won._

He watches as the corners of Bill’s eye slowly turn upwards in a happy smirk.

...And why wouldn’t Bill be happy? He’s getting what he wants. Everything he’s ever wanted.

“...Ford?” he hears Stanley call out, his brother’s voice wobbling, unsure.

Conversely, Ford has never felt more sure of anything in his entire life.

Ford slowly rises to his feet.

Bill reaches out his hand towards Ford.

Ford hears the hears the yells of disbelief, of negation and denial rising from his family and the others behind him, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter anymore. This is the only way he can save them all; Ford knows this.

Ford raises his own hand.

Bill is going to rip the equation he needs from his mind, and then break out of the confines of Gravity Falls; Ford knows this, too.

Bill is still smirking. The voices are getting louder. Closer, perhaps. It doesn’t matter; Bill can’t be stopped.

Bill is going to take over the galaxy, and maybe even worse, potentially _destroy the universe_ \--

Bill’s hand goes up in blue flames. 

\--and all Stanford Pines can feel in that moment, in the face of such an unstoppable threat, of impending doom at the long end of such a warped and twisted destiny that he’d never really wanted--

Ford reaches out and shakes Bill’s hand.

\--is _relief_.

“ _It’s a… **DEAL!**_ ”

Time stops.

And everything goes dark.

\---


End file.
